Labeling machines are known which are designed to apply to containers labels printed on a continuous film wound on a reel: such film can have portions of paste which are preapplied to the labels at the face designed to make contact with the containers but can also have no preapplied paste, and in this case the machine has a pasting assembly.
Such machines comprise a rotating carousel provided with means for supporting the individual containers, which are adapted to turn the containers about their own axis, and the continuous film that unwinds from the reel then passes at an alignment device, at a label transit detection photocell, and at a traction roller.
At the output of the traction roller, the film is taken by a drum which comprises blades designed to cut the film at the separation notches between one label and the next and is provided, at its outer surface, with ports connected to suction means which ensure the retention of the film so that it adheres to the surface: in this manner, the individual labels, separated after cutting, are brought into contact with corresponding containers supported by the carousel.
Such drum is indeed termed cutting and transfer drum.
Known cutting and transfer drums can be divided into sectors, each of which covers a portion of a circumference which is comprised between two contiguous blades, and such sectors have some disadvantageous characteristics: the operations for locking and releasing them, which have to be performed every time the label processed by the machine is changed, are in fact awkward, and the correct positioning of the sectors is also often problematic.
It is also necessary to consider the fact that if blades of the known type which operate in combination with a contrast blade are used, only two blades can be installed on the drum.